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Thursday, November 07, 2002This would be the first case of bubonic plague in New York City in over a century. But the origin of the disease may be less exotic. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say half the bubonic plague cases in the United States come from the state of New Mexico. Bubonic plague gets its name from the bubos, or enlarged, infected lymph nodes that characterize its presentation. Terrorist attacks are not likely to be bubonic plague, but pneumonic plague, a respiratory version of the infection. A small percentage of people who have bubonic plague go on to develop pneumonic plague when the bacteria spreads to the lungs through the blood and lymphatic systems, but pneumonic plague can also be caused by inhaling the bacteria that cause plague. This doesn’t happen often in nature (it sometimes happens when people handle infected animals), but it’s the modus operandi of bioweapons. The couple from New Mexico are believed to have bubonic plague, not pneumonic plague. So, breath a sigh of relief. It isn’t a bioterrorist attack. (For everything you need to know, and more, about plague as a bio-weapon, click here.) posted by Sydney on 11/07/2002 09:00:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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